What If?
by DoubleXXCross
Summary: A series of AUs based on changing one aspect of the series. Idea Number Twenty-Five: What if a certain idiot started reading this website?
1. He Was The Murderer?

**...HE WAS THE MURDERER?**

The boy glanced over at the clock,  
Watching it. Tick tock tick tock  
As the world ground to a halt as the others  
Found a man dead amongst the leaves. The brothers  
Backed away. Blame was painless  
To leave on one of them; they'd never understand that they were blameless  
Of the crime. He was excused from suspicion too.  
Who, after all, would be the kind of man who  
Would condemn a six-year-old child to a life  
Behind bars? The knife  
Presented itself, prepared  
With fingerprints and blood. Those brothers shared  
The pain as well as the cuffs.  
He kicked off his scuffs  
In favour of his small shoes.  
If they never suspected him, what was there to lose?

Among the things I have discovered by writing of sins,  
It's that plot bunnies enjoy eating out my shins.

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**Next Conan's Hint!:** Heart Attack.


	2. West Followed East?

A/N: If you didn't understand the first chapter, with the poem, it was something I've mused about for a while. What if Conan actually was the murderer in every single case, and had been elaborately manufacturing them for his own enjoyment? Hopefully, that concept came across right and you all caught that drift.

This chapter's idea is taken from the first contact between Hattori Heiji and Kudou Shin'ichi / Edogawa Conan. Enjoy!

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**...WEST FOLLOWED EAST?  
****(Based on Files 92-96, 'Enter! The Rival from Ôsaka')**

His heart seized. At once he realised what was happening. His bones were melting; his skin was burning; his eyes were whirling around painfully in their sockets.

He couldn't help but look. Look to see if there was anybody there.

She was there, for a few seconds, then talked about a doctor and ran off. Why did she want a doctor? It wasn't like he was-

Okay, scratch that thought. He was dying. He ought to have realised it by now.

Heart went again. His vision went black.

Where the hell was he!?

Why couldn't he hear a thing?

No, he could hear. He heard footsteps, faint footsteps... no, it couldn't be-! No! She couldn't see this! It would destroy her!

He stumbled out of the borrowed bed and reached around, pain wracking his body with every millimetre of movement. He managed to shuffle himself over... he could manage - he could manage to reach the closet just in time, right? Everything was moving faster than he perceived it to be.

He hoped she took a while with that doctor. Explaining things would take a while.

He felt it then, his limbs stretching out. The shirt he was wearing nearly tore apart. And the shorts... dear God, he hoped nobody saw him wearing them right now. He spat out a laugh; forced as it was, heavy and bitty like a bad recording, it sounded like the only friend he had at this moment. It was in pain; he was too...

His vision blurred back, and he saw he was nearly there. He grabbed loosely, glasses slipping from his face due to the sweat. The bow-tie, which had ripped, fell too. Good, he'd be choking, unable to breathe, because of that thing.

Then he looked at his hand in realisation. It wasn't the small, stubby-fingered hand of a child. The long, thin fingered reached out-

He was big. _HE WAS BIG_!

Then it caught his eye. He looked up at the figure in the door.

Figure... no! No! This couldn't be happening!

"Ku-kudou-kun..."

His face turned pallid. That wasn't Ran's vo-

Oh, God. Please, _don't_ be him. _Don't_ be Hattori Heiji. Don't be him, not now...!

The tan-faced Ôsakan knelt down. "What just happened, Ku-kudou-kun...?" he stuttered, reaching out to feel the scared boy's forehead. "There was Conan-kun, sittin' there, an' now, there's you."

He grabbed at the shirt in the closet a little stronger, trying to communicate what he meant while gasping those first gasps of adulthood. There was no time for words. He needed to breathe. He needed... to think, to be able to stand on his feet.

Hattori's eyes darted between the article of clothing and the intense blue eyes of the man in front of him, before understanding. "Right, better get you outta them pants."

The colour went straight back to the kid's face.

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

"What was that all 'bout, Kudou-kun?" He felt Hattori leaning against the bookcase besides him; it caused the case to shake slightly under his weight. His heart was going to do flips again. He felt warm and cold at the same time. There was sweat coating his forehead, and his sight was blurring again. Not good... not good.

Ran had run for the doctor again.

"What was all what 'bout?"

Hattori crossed his arms. "I would talk about you winnin' the case, but I'm still wond'rin'-"

"_Baro_."

Hattori pushed himself off the case. "Excuse me?"

"There's no win or lose in this... this _isn't _some kind of – of koshien. There's only one truth."

"Yeah," Hattori replied. "So, tell me the one truth. What-"

No! Losing... losing... have... to... run! He bolted from the room, running for the door... steam began coming off him, as if he were some magical character in a cheap girl's cartoon... no time for Ran, no time for the doctor, no time for Hattori, he had to run-

"_Shin'ichi_!"

No... Don't... Ran... she faded into non-existence as his vision threatened to black out once more. Her voice faded... the stairs, make it down the stairs... he made it! B-but how!? Oh, who cared? His heart was thumping so loudly in his chest he couldn't hear the words spoken by the others as he darted out of the door-

No.

No, hell, no, this couldn't be happening! Not on the street! STUPID! _STUPID_!

Heck, he couldn't even hear himself think that... what was wrong with him!? Was he – _was he changing back_!? If so, _NO_! He had to say those words to Ran, he shouldn't have run away! But now – oh, now, what a perfect time to say it, huh? When he was about to shrink to the size of a six-year-old!?

Then his vision cancelled out. Just great... just...

And it happened again, and he nearly screamed, if not for the hand over his mouth. He felt himself dragged past the pain, past the screaming in his ears, dragged somewhere and held beside a wall as somebody held him and _shit_, how warm they felt... They were saying something to him, faintly, and there was a hand in his, and the other was stroking his face.

His bones were melting, pulling apart; his skeleton was shrinking, he could feel it tear into his lungs and he nearly stopped breathing; his entire self getting smaller, his eyeballs threatening to explode in their sockets.

"Kudou-kun."

His hearing was weak, and his sight was still so dim, and yet from the shadowy figure in front of him he discerned that familiar white cap and dark face that had to belong to the other teenage boy.

"...it's gonna be okay... shh... it's gonna be awright, Kudou-kun," said Hattori, and he wrapped his arms around him. "I dunno what's goin' on. You didn't wanna say. But I won't tell anyone 'bout this, awright?"

And he cried. He cried like the child he was, clamped so securely – still slipping away, need to hold on, need to stay on – onto this boy he had only met this afternoon, who now held his greatest secret.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Prototype.


	3. They Were Separate People?

A/N: I got the feeling that Spark-san is a little confused as to what's going on in this one. I was working off a plot-bunny, to tell the truth. Being that I have a pet rabbit, I couldn't bring myself to shoo him away, and when he gained hold of my shin... well, you can guess what happened.

Well, to explain better, this was based on the idea that maybe Shin'ichi and Conan were actually one person (Shin'ichi) before taking the strange drug, which then split them apart on the molecular level. However, that seemed more like a bad fanfiction plot than anything else I came up with (other than the plot to my bad fanfiction XD). However, it struck me as an idea. So I messed around with it, and it became that Shin'ichi and Conan were already separate people, and Conan took a poison that left him alive, leaving him vulnerable, but oddly intelligent. The rest of it stemmed on from that.

**

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**

**...THEY WERE SEPARATE PEOPLE?**

It was like that. First it was Shin'ichi. Then, it became Shin'ichi and Conan. And then it was nobody at all.

Conan was discovered one day in a ditch beside one of the pillars holding up the Mystery Coaster in Tropical Land. Shin'ichi took him back home and gave him a bath and some new clothes to wear. There was already a problem; he couldn't bring himself to look at the little boy properly, always scanning over his face.

Then, as he was drying the little boy-

"Where are those guys that attacked me?"

Conan had been attacked by two men who had spotted him watching their trade-off with a wealthy businessman. They had knocked him unconscious, and fed him something, like a pill. Then they had walked away. Shin'ichi had discovered him just afterwards.

And with that information, the junior consulting detective's new mission was to discover what had happened to this boy, above all else.

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

And since that boy had told him what had happened to him, Shin'ichi decided to take him to crime scenes, just in case something happened. The first case was something he himself managed to walk into; Ran's father had received his first case in years, and Shin'ichi was there to make sure he didn't mess up.

It turned out Conan was very intelligent. It was he who gathered the most clues. It was he who found the little girl. And though he sang Mouri's praises, Shin'ichi was certain that he had solved the case at the same time as he did.

As time went on, Shin'ichi became more curious as to what had happened to Conan that night. No child was that intelligent; during one case he had even talked to Shin'ichi about different types of explosive, hoping to find out what had caused a hole in a wall.

So, one night, he decided to ask him.

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

"Conan."

The boy looked up. "What is it, Shin'ichi-niichan?"

Shin'ichi sat next to him. "Before those guys attacked you, what do you remember?" he inquired.

The little boy frowned, and then sat back on his chair. "I was bored," he said. "So I went out without anybody knowing I left. But I then I got lost in Tropical Land, and I saw that blackmailing."

"Okay," Shin'ichi nodded. "And what else? What about... your life, maybe? Did people think you were smart?"

"Nope." The boy shook his head. "I didn't think as much, and I didn't know as much, until I met you. And you're a really good teacher, Shin'ichi-niichan!" To prove it, he gave the teenage detective a big hug, burying his face into the elder's nape comfortably.

...Or rather, almost. "Conan, your glasses are digging into my shoulder."

"Oh!" The boy leaned back, taking off the glasses. And Shin'ichi finally looked into his own face from ten years ago. "Is that better, Shin'ichi-niichan?"

So, Shin'ichi tried to learn more about these strange people who had attacked Conan. It looked to be that they were part of a large criminal organisation. Conan had probably spotted something they really didn't want anyone to see.

And then somebody came.

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

"She's a new teacher from my school," he said proudly. "This is Haibara-sensei!"

The fast introduction of the strange woman set Shin'ichi at odds. For example, most teachers weren't eighteen years old, which was just old enough to have come out of high school. Another point was that she didn't look particularly friendly with children. She'd treated Conan with not too much respect when she walked into the room.

The woman had come to talk to him about Conan's progress in his classes. That is, until she sat down.

"Kudou Shin'ichi," she said, adjusting her eye-glasses. "It's nice to meet you, tantei-san."

"It's nice to meet you too, sensei. I understand that you teach Conan when his teacher's absent, correct?"

"Where did you find him?"

That was the question that had confirmed his suspicions. He stood up from his chair. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

The woman took off her glasses. "My name is Miyano Shiho. And you watched my sister die. I wanted to find out what the detective she said so many good things about must have felt to see her life drain away."

The child who had been stowed safely in the corner of the room, away from them, shook violently as she pulled out a gun. "Shin'ichi-niichan, get down!"

And Kudou Shin'ichi barely had enough time to react when she fired. He ducked down, shielding Conan.

"_What's going on_!?" he yelled.

She pointed the gun against his temple, cocking it. "I want him to feel exactly how I felt. It's definitely beyond your own knowledge now that you're older, but while he's still fresh he can learn exactly what I went through!"

That struck a chord with the detective. He stood up, holding Conan in your arms. "Explain to me," he said, choosing his words carefully, "who this kid is."

"He took our new prototype poison, and he's been our lab rat ever since." She lowered her arm, but didn't take her hand off the trigger. "If you haven't noticed, our new poison is designed to increase nerve impulses. It was originally created to send so many that the brain naturally shut down from an overload. Similar to how a computer can stop working if it's processing too much at one time. But that child-", to which she pointed at Conan, "-managed to take it without dying."

Shin'ichi did not process this information well. "What!? He – you mean, two guys tried to ki-ki-"

"Kill him. Yes. He saw things he... shouldn't have seen. And company policy is pretty clear on what we do to those who shouldn't be in the know." She smirked sourly; she was a walking, talking lemon, sweet-looking until you got a taste of what was inside. "But the boy survived, and came to live with a respected detective. And now look at him. Super-intelligent to the point of impossibility. That boy is now the smartest child in Japan."

"_What_!?" Shin'ichi exclaimed again. "Then explain the next thing – why does he look like me!?"

"I thought that was obvious," said Miyano Shiho. "He _is_ you."

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

And with what she said next she made those two disappear, yes, she did. Whether they were dead, in hiding, or kidnapped, nobody knew. All they know is that it was Shin'ichi, then Shin'ichi and Conan, then nobody at all.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Rap Sheet.


	4. He Was Caught?

A/N: The reason this one is so short is because it's an attempt at a drabble. And not a good one.

Oh, and because I haven't already: _Detective Conan _/ _Case Closed_ (and related work _Magic Kaito_) are works of fiction owned by Aoyama Goshou, Shounen Jump and Yumimori Telecasting. I do not claim to own _Detective Conan_, its characters, settings, themes or plot. These one-shots are written for recreational purposes, only.

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...HE WAS CAUGHT?

"Let's see... he's been charged with drug use, breaking and entering, driving without a license... driving _helicopters and motorboats _without a license – good lord – impersonation, theft, identity fraud, aiding and abetting; he's been drugging people, involved with criminals, assaulting members of the general public, not to mention he's also been interfering with several police investigations in his short time in the city. And he's even written 'murderer' on his rap sheet himself," read out Megure-keibu. He scanned the name at the top of the sheet, eyes wide and panicky. "I suppose... we should bring him in."

Takagi-keiji couldn't believe what he was doing as he literally carried a half-conscious seven-year-old child into the interrogation room.

* * *

A/N: So... I kept thinking through how many things Conan is able to get away with. It strikes me as odd that somebody who believes so much in the law is able to commit so many crimes without second thought. You'd think that at some point, somebody would step in.

Although my one-shots are based on the manga, 'driving helicopters and motorboats' is a nod to the films. And my A/N is bigger than the fanfiction itself.

Oops.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Scorecard.


	5. He Saw Dead People?

A/N: If you've ever read about it, there's a cat in a hospital somewhere that is one-hundred percent reliable for sensing death. If it curls up near somebody, the family are immediately called to say their last farewell. Somehow I transferred this to Conan. Then it became that he lay down next to the bodies to calm the spirits in their passage to the afterlife, and somehow, finally, it became this. Hattori ended up in it merely because I love the guy, and Conan needed somebody to be with to make a joke of it.

* * *

**..HE SAW DEAD PEOPLE?**

"It's annoying."

"Yeah, you tell it!"

"It's insane."

"You're preachin' to my soul!"

"And worse of all..."

"Say it loud, say it proud!"

_DOKAN!_

"_IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS_!" yelled Conan, blowing on his fist. Next to him, Hattori Heiji lay dazed and confused on the pavement. The two were sitting next to the road outside the Mouri residence, watching the cars.

"Sorry 'bout that..." Hattori winced, rubbing his head. "Wow, so that's what cluein' that old man in feels like."

The boy frowned. "Sorry. You were driving me nuts too, Hattori-kun... don't do that again."

The Ôsakan pushed himself up one-handed. "Awright, Kudou-kun, I won't."

"Or you'll know how pissing Ran off feels."

"...ulp."

"Exactly. Not good." Conan looked over the notebook. "Okay, who've we spotted today?"

Hattori peered over. "Sweet, we got a major haul o' names here. We've seen loads o' people... hey, even some you know!"

"_Baro_, I know them all." Conan pulled his jacket on tighter. "...Christ, it's freezing - huh?" His eyes followed an invisible path in the road, stopping for a few seconds before continuing on. He wrote down a familiar name, staring sadly at it for a while, before looking up. "Where was I?"

"Ghosts ain't nice folks to have walkin' through you."

"Now _that_ is something you can preach."

**

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**Next Conan's Hint!:** Chrysanthenum.


	6. It Was All A Dream?

A/N: You know, I'm a little worried about the fact that instead of leaving reviews, people are instead adding my 'story' to their Alert list... :D Not that that's not awesome or anything, having the system alert people when it's updated, but if anybody wants to review, they can.

This one? Have you ever watched _Dallas_? Me neither. Heh, heh... 'It was all a dream' is a popular TV Trope. If the series ends this way, I'll burst out laughing.

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**...IT WAS ALL A DREAM?**

He sat up. The air was fresh in his bedroom, the light streaming through the window. A pleasant breeze carried a few stray autumn leaves past his head.

He rubbed his forehead. What a crazy nightmare... in his head, he'd been shrunk to the size of a small child by a mysterious drug and forced to use a detective as a puppet for his own deduction shows. The dream had had people he knew, people he didn't know – heck, even a local weathergirl had had a starring role in it, as well as a pop diva and several of Japan's elite businessmen...

With a slight glare at the heart monitor that beeped away beside him, he brushed his hand over the drip connected to his arm. His head was bandaged, and his body had obviously been damaged.

He looked around the room, already familiar with it. Every second of his dream, he'd heard the heart monitor's constant rhythm, reminding him that he wasn't even there. When he seemed to be closing his eyes he felt the bed sheets around him, hugging him so oddly.

There were fresh flowers at the base of the bed. He took the stand holding the drip in his hand and stood up, feeling the ground with his bare feet. He was clad in a hospital gown... and some pants, thankfully. There was no outfit more embarrassing than a hospital gown.

He took his first step forward in two years.

Feeling more confident now that he was sure of his feet supporting his weight, he continued down past his bed to the table. He picked one of the flowers from its place in the beautiful arrangement. It was a white rose with an oddly strong smell.

"You're awake," said somebody. He looked over at the door. The black-haired girl that walked in was holding a paper grocery bag in one hand.

"Yeah," he said, smiling faintly. He opened and closed his free hand, and then drew it up to his chest. He snapped his fingers; between them, a scarlet chrysanthemum bloomed. "I'm Kuroba Kaito. It's nice to meet you... again."

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Bandages.


	7. He Was Murdered?

A/N: You know, I wanted to join this site a week before Hallowe'en, but I couldn't join it until I got back home from Rome. This would have gone up then, me having written it all ready for Hallowe'en, yet I didn't get to join the site and I came back ON Hallowe'en and I'd forgotten all about joining 'til the third. So anyway, this would have appeared back then, but it's here now and oh, dear, I'm rambling again.

This one was based on the same idea as the other fic that was called _What If?_ in this section (before the name changed to _The Silver Bullets_) even though I didn't realise. And well, there's something eerie about 'Shin'ichi' when he takes off his bandages at the opening of File 432 *spoiler!*. Something etherial... like a ghost... in fact, he's even talking about things like Kaitou KID would. The first time I read that chapter, I was completely convinced despite all logic that it _was_ a dead Shin'ichi.

It turned out to be Hattori Heiji in costume. Damn him to hell.

* * *

**...HE WAS MURDERED?  
****(Based on Files 430-432, 'The Ghost Ship's Secret Guest')**

"Now, let's start the deduction." Off came the bowler hat, as a bandaged hand came up to his chin and began peeling away the fabric. "Let the truth..."

"That voice... that accent," Mouri breathed, just barely, "no..."

"...come to light, under this full moon..." The reams came apart to reveal pale skin, almost white and drained as if blood had never flowed underneath it. A swift jerk of the material and it unravelled from his face faster, sweeping up into a beautiful spiralling daze. Black hair unknotted from its covers, blue eyes pierced the night air.

A desperate shout rang out from Mouri's mouth. "Y-You're the detective kid – Kudou Shin'ichi!"

The boy smiled.

Sonoko screamed. Mouri was disbelieving. As the confirmation of his identity reached the ears of the party guests, it all began to sink in.

Then somebody said it. "So he wasn't dead..."

And that stung more than anything.

"If, by dead, you mean... my heart being heavy in my chest... my eyes, blind and unseeing... my skin cold to the touch..." he whispered. The microphone from the dead man's mask was still pressed to his lips, freezing like an ice cube. "If, by dead, you mean my lungs taking in nothingness, my flesh unable to mend, my... my blood absent from my veins-" his eyes began to water, yet he did not wipe them away; he let them fall unhindered to the deck far below him.

"If, by dead, you mean... that my tears don't hit the ground, no matter how hard I cry and how much it hurts me... then yes, I am dead."

He un-wrapped the bandages on his arm, to reveal to the rest of the people below him that there wasn't one.

"A man that removed my life is somewhere within your party," said Shin'ichi. "When I said that my eyes were unseeing, I meant whatever you human souls call sight – the sensation of seeing things as they are physically. The dead don't see that way."

A man in the back, with bullet wounds in his face and his skin stripped from his body, began to sweat.

"I can see you, Vodka-san," the boy snarled. "I can see you hiding behind that rubber mask. You looked much better in your black suit and sunglasses, my dear murderer..."

There were gasps from the crowd, the aforementioned killer trying desperately to disappear within the crowd. Shin'ichi grinned, before he suddenly... disappeared.

And reappeared in front of the man with the skinless face. "You'll see me everywhere, _anata_," he crooned mockingly. "I'm not leaving until you give me my life back, after all."

He held out his invisible hand. "Well, give it back."

The man stood his ground, reaching within his costume. From his jacket he pulled out a small nine millimetre pistol, aiming it at the black-haired boy's head. "D-don't move, Kudou!"

"But, anata, you haven't given me my life back," the boy chided. Some binding fell away from his leg, revealing a limb that had been dissolved straight down to the bone. Now that he was closer to everybody, it became clear that his forehead bore an unclosed scar. "And I'd like it back very much. Because, you see, if I had it back, I'd be able to propose to her, and we'd be married and living somewhere nice. Like Hokkaido, or Gunma, or Fuji."

As Mouri quickly figured out what that meant, Vodka's finger danced anxiously over the trigger.

"Also, if I were alive..." Shin'ichi reached out to the man paralysed by fear, and pushed down the gun slightly, "...then the bullets would hurt."

Vodka panicked, shooting. Three bullets tore themselves in Shin'ichi's side. He stumbled backwards, caught by the Gorgon's open arms. There were a few tense minutes where the boy breathed loudly and sharply, his eyes blurry and the still-wrapped fingers of his left hand clenching and unclenching by his side.

Then, he dug his invisible fingers into his wounds (as the trailing fabric would hint) and, one by one, pulled each bullet out. He pushed himself forward from the Gorgon's grasp onto his feet. There were red marks on his skin – crusted blood all over his visible body, liquid blood dripping from the limbs that supposedly didn't exist.

"I told you," he said. "Bullets don't hurt. Now, give me my life back."

Mouri began to back away. The crowds all copied him.

"Please, anata."

Vodka dropped the gun.

"Give me my life back."

Shin'ichi picked it up.

"Oh well. If you won't give me my life back, I'll just need to take yours. After all, you took my life." He cocked the gun upwards, and pointed it directly at Vodka's right eye. "It's only right you should pay for it." He winked. "Or are you just a lowly shoplifter?"

_BANG!_

And just before Shin'ichi disappeared into the night, leaving a dead man's corpse behind, he looked over to Mouri. "By the way... the werewolf, he drank a Silver Bullet, yes? What a foolish dog!"

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!: **Pillow.


	8. He Really Was With A Blond After All?

A/N: Haven't you ever wondered why Ran thinks Shin'ichi's running around with another girl? I do vaguely remember a File of no particular number (though I guess it's in Files 300+, as you can see from the chapter header) where it graphically showed him naked and cuddling with a brunette female who looked a lot older than him - in a _bed_. Hey, all the girls he'd shown with are brunettes! So what if it really happened?

As usual, I took it a step further. Enjoy!

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...HE REALLY WAS WITH A BLOND AFTER ALL?  
**(Based on Files 68-70, 'Shin'ichi's Soccer Romance', and 305-307, 'Pottery Class Killer')**

Shin'ichi opened his eyes.

"Hey."

The person besides him groaned. "Don't get up."

"Why?" Shin'ichi asked.

There was a slight silence as the other reached over and kissed him on the lips. Some seconds passed; they parted for a sweet moment of recognition.

Shin'ichi grinned. "Wow," he said breathlessly. "That still gets me. Every time."

The other laughed. "Now, you can get up, twit," he laughed richly.

Shin'ichi chuckled under his breath, sitting up. "Hey, I don't think even Ran'll suspect _this_."

"What, you sleeping with a guy, or just with someone that isn't her?" They both burst out laughing.

Then the phone rang. Both phones rang.

"What is it?"

"Yes?"

"ANOTHER murder? I just woke up!"

"Kaitou KID never sleeps, does he?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in an hour. Sorry I'll take so long."

"You're really stuck, aren't you, Nakamori-keibu?"

I forgot to mention, the blond described in the title... is Hakuba Saguru.

...

Many fangirls fainted at that.

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A/N: The title says 'blond' for two reasons: 1) It's a really early warning that the other character is male (I tend to use the 'e' on the end if it's describing a girl or an idiot) before that pronoun is used; and 2) How many people have read this manga without seeing the anime and only realised that the characters with uncoloured hair were actually brunet/te when Sonoko is attacked and described directly by other characters as having light brown hair?

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**Next Conan's Hint!:** Burning bridge.


	9. The Thief Got To Him First?

A/N: Finally I did a more proper version of a 'what if'. This is where an AU really doesn't change anything, except it addresses something I know to be strange - how the hell did Kaitou KID know who Conan was? In the anime he finds out due to listening to his behaviour via a hidden bug on a dove of his during one of the movies and makes a conclusion using that evidence and his own knowledge of how Shin'ichi operates, but Manga!KID doesn't have that opportunity. And he's made out to be a total genius and know everything in the anime (barring the Clock Tower heist episode) while in the manga he's just some really weird guy. So in the manga he's actually totally oblivious... and _still_ acts like he knows everything. Arse.

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...THE THIEF GOT TO HIM FIRST?  
(Based on Files 192-196, the 'Magic Lovers Murder Case')

Katsuki Doitou was an intelligent young man despite his round, humble appearance. He knew when things were right, when things were wrong, and when things were so messed up that right and wrong were hard not to confuse.

Of course, it was one of those days now. Doitou didn't know whether to thank the gods that the bridge had burned down (blocking off Mouri-chan's father, meaning that they weren't going to be stifled by a worried parent) or to damn them to the darkest depths of existence for letting the boy run without stopping him at all. Not only that, but Conan had been suffering from a serious cold. The combination of exhaustion from running half a mile to the door, his infection and inhaling the smoke coming from the flames in reams had caused him to collapse in front of the house, right into the snow, where he had frozen for the next few seconds and a fever grabbed hold of him.

Doitou knew there was something wrong with the way that boy had acted. When they were introduced, the boy hadn't been happy to meet any magicians, or upset that his 'big sister' was leaving him. It could have been the cold talking, but it wasn't. He could tell from the way his eyes weren't tired: more rather, they were intense and deep, clouded only by severe boredom. The only moment the boy had shown any other expression was when Mouri-san began warning them all about touching his daughter – then the kid had panicked.

As if the thought of anyone touching Mouri-chan had actually invaded his young mind and horrified him...

Surprise, surprise, Doitou didn't laugh as often as his face suggested he did, but he still laughed whenever a thought came to his head that amused him. And the idea that a small boy like that could actually understand what Mouri-san had been warning the others about was very much amusing. After all, how could a seven-year-old child, who looked like _that_, understand what was being implied there?

Maybe that boy did. After all, young children were usually excited to see magic tricks. That boy had just walked up to them all as if they were all normal people. He hadn't seemed interested at all. Until the bridge had burned down, Doitou had assumed the boy to be seriously depressed or sick enough that it had drained him of most of his energy.

When the bridge had burned down, the boy had run straight through the fire, screaming his big 'sister's' name, not worried at all about whether the bridge would drop and dissolve between his feet, or whether the fire would burn him to dead, or whether his sickness would make him faint. No, that boy Conan had shot straight back to them, through a burning bridge, without a single thought as to his own safety. Screaming his 'big sister's' name - _without honorifics_.

A lack of honorifics meant familiarity to the point of intimacy. Normally, honorifics were enforced between close people such as family members, and Mouri-chan was indeed a family member, if only an adopted one. Conan had called the girl 'Ran-neechan'; that was how Doitou knew this. But when he'd been running through the fire and through the forest, trying to get to them, he'd been crying her name in such an adult fashion, so scared...

Doitou had been the first to run out of the house, making up an excuse. He had been the first to discover Conan lying there, half-conscious, his face pink from the burning fever. He had listened as the boy moaned for his 'sister' to leave, eyesight so blurry that he couldn't tell the difference between her and Doitou. Conan had told him about the bridge, about the murder.

A man named King of Evasion had been killed by one Shadow Manipulator.

It sent shivers down Doitou's spine to think of it.

Mouri-chan's motherly embrace of the boy as soon as he had carried him into the warm house was something that Doitou suddenly envied as he saw it. They set the boy on a bed in a downstairs room, Doitou supplying some medicines to calm his fever. He always carried this kind of thing with him; after all, if anything happened to anybody around him, it was his instinct to find a way to look after them. Having the pills with him all the time just served to make it easier for him.

He was sitting beside the boy, having offered to do so. He stroked the boy's face.

Why had the boy talked like an adult when speaking to him, so direct and impersonal, yet in such a beautifully close fashion?

It had sounded almost loving-

Was it love? Doitou surely hadn't expected that thought to appear in his mind, but now that he ran over the boy's half conscious words, it added up. Doitou had been a child once, he knew how they spoke; and he as an adult also knew how adults talked to each other. Conan hadn't been talking like a child. All of his mannerisms had been off. But if he had been talking like an adult, it had been in a very anxious fashion. It had certainly sounded like he was demanding for his loved one to get away, rather than just his 'big sister'.

That little boy loved his 'sister'. His 'sister' was Mouri Ran. And let's not forget how much that little boy looked like a certain missing detective...

Now Doitou knew enough of what was going on here to work out the rest of the mystery. He'd met Conan before, although under a few other aliases, and with a few other faces, too. Having known somebody quite similar to the boy when he was young, as well, it was easy enough to add up who Conan really was.

For a few seconds Doitou shed his mask, figuratively, and walked away. Edogawa Conan, who was the mirror image of Kudou Shin'ichi (and possibly more than that), could wait, for the moment. Right now, Kaitou KID needed to keep up his false identity.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Dart Gun.


	10. It Had Happened Before?

**...IT HAD HAPPENED BEFORE?  
****(Based on...)**

The explanation the man was giving was expected. The sudden collapse of pain wasn't.

And, of course, the steam didn't even seem possible.

It was all, to the chronicler of this man's many escapades, an extremely obscure event. It had been obvious to him, as a man of medical profession, that it was due to a poison dart shot from a gun or blowpipe some way away. The sudden reaction, the dropping on the floor and the odd spasms that followed all pointed to that. The steam rising from the victim's flesh, however, was a new effect that remained unidentified.

So wasn't it a surprise that, over the next twenty seconds, the victim had shrunk to the size of a small eight-year-old boy?

This was beyond modern scientific knowledge. The idea was impossible. A poison capable of de-aging a full-grown man to his childhood years – who would have thought it possible, other than one of those fantasy writers who were so popular these days? And yet, looking down at the mess on the floor...

It was twenty minutes after that, in a bed within the Cunningham household, the shrunken awoke bleary-eyed as he often did in the mornings, before his vigour came into full (and drastic) effect.

"Excuse me, Watson, would you kindly explain why everything seems to have grown in my unconsciousness?"

**(..._The Adventure of the Reigate Squire_,from _The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_ by Arthur Conan Doyle)**

* * *

A/N: Mwahahahahaha! Betcha didn't see _that_ one coming, huh!? Well, yep. This probably should go in the _SH_ section, but meh. If you've ever read the story, Sherlock's recovering from a depression after a huge, energy-consuming case in the Netherlands, and he's slightly more mad and forgetful. However, it all turns out in the end to be his own acting, which he has used to capture the criminal(s).

There's an odd sequence where Sherlock fakes a seizure just before Inspector Forrester can tell the Cunninghams about the important clue. Sherlock himself never refers to it as an act; he simply calls 'it the luckiest chance in the world'. It's actually Watson and his old army friend who call it fake and Sherlock just plays along with the idea. Either he's actually confirming it as an act or he's being confounding for confounding's sake. I read it as the latter; and from this the idea for this fan-fiction burst forth. Silly, eh?

I just suddenly remembered that the APTX's Japanese name is read as 'shyaroku' (a rough render of the name Sherlock). XD

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Black Car


	11. Dreams Came True?

**...DREAMS CAME TRUE?  
****(Based on Files 238-242, 'Pisco, Sherry and the Chandelier')**

(File 239)  
"_I had a nightmare..."  
_"_A nightmare?"  
_"_They found us on our way home, and we were pushed onto the road of death... you were beaten to death first. And then the rest of them were, silently, one by one... and... I knew all of them... Ha. I was brought to the poison gas chamber. That kind of death is relaxing to me – huh?"  
_"_Did you know? If you wear glasses, nobody recognises you. Even a demon can be an angel, right?"  
_"_Hey, wouldn't you become Superman without your glasses? ...Thanks. You let me relax."  
_"_You're cute too. Really."_

DCDCDCDCDCDC

The blood just poured.

Horrified, Ai watched as Edogawa Conan, seven years old, was ruthlessly punched and kicked by a party of black-dressed men. The small boy was clutching his broken glasses in one hand and his body against a wall covered in cuts and bruises... meanwhile, the blood kept coming. Ai herself was pressed under a man's foot, unable to get away.

They – everybody: these men, Conan, Ai, and the Shounen Tantei-dan as well – were on a main road on the way home from Beika Elementary School. A group of men led by Gin and Vodka had appeared from a set of black cars and simply attacked them. There was nobody else on the street. Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were slightly away from them, watching wide-eyed as the bravest person they had ever known was being taken from them, slowly and painfully.

There were puddles of blood on the floor. More blood than you'd think a child could ever bleed and still stay alive. The black-haired boy was holding out the longest he could, hand in his pocket, secretly cradling his earring phone.

He would have switched it on and let somebody he knew hear the vicious beating he was receiving (Agasa-hakase, Ran, Hattori, heck, even Mouri-san could be listening horrified right now). Ai knew he would have thought of something like that. If it were the last thing he could think of.

Another hard punch and his head rolled to the side. Conan's eyes met the reddish-blonde girl's.

"S-sorry I couldn't... protect you... Sherry," he muttered, and reached out to her with all the energy he had left. Ai reached back, as though the pavement would shrink and their hands would join, and somehow they would spring up and defeat these black monsters that had come for them.

Their hands never met... for Conan's dropped as a man with steel-tipped shoes made a sharp strike to his stomach. The small boy coughed more blood onto the sidewalk. His eyes snapped shut.

They never opened again.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** One-Word Letter


	12. She Never Woke Up?

**...SHE NEVER WOKE UP?  
****(Based on Files 246-250, 'The Spider Mansion')**

"KAZUHA! KAZUHA!"

"...Hattori-kun."

"WAKE UP, KAZUHA! PLEASE! WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT!"

"Hattori-kun."

"YOU GOTTA WAKE UP! STOP SCARIN' ME!"

"Hattori-kun!"

"WHAT!?!?"

"She won't wake."

"...but... but she hazta. This is all a stupid prank, I know it! An' she'll wake up in a second an'..."

"...Hattori-kun..."

"...But..."

"Hattori-kun, I can't say this any other way. You have to listen to me when I say this. _She won't wake._"

"An' howda you know _that_, Kudou-kun!?"

"Because she's dead. You see the noose around her neck... She's not yet stiff; it hasn't been long. We can still get the killer."

"But she's alive!"

"OPEN YOUR EYES, HATTORI-KUN! KAZUHA-CHAN'S GONE!"

"She ain't... she can't be..."

"She won't wake up... And I know who her killer is. We can nail him now, Hattori-kun. I just need your co-operation, and then her death can be avenged."

"...'Shine'."

"Huh?"

"The word Robert-san wrote to Misa-chan three years back. It musta been 'shine'... 'cause it looks like 'death'."

"You mean the note that the twins got?"

"Yeah. 'Cause he said he wanted a shinin' princess... an' that's what I wanted outta Kazuha."

* * *

A/N: This is not one of my best... but it's hard to work off a scan from the Chinese version because of the inevitable change in name readings. So I tried not to mention any other character's names.

It sorta worked... kinda.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Restaurant.


	13. He Got To Say It?

**...HE GOT TO SAY IT?  
****(Based on Files 258-260, 'Kudou Shin'ichi's Momentary Reprieve')**

He stuttered. Ran knew there was something he had to say to her, something important, because Shin'ichi _never_ stuttered. Every second of his life, no matter how relaxed or how angry he was, Shin'ichi could always make the words come out of his mouth. He always knew what to say.

How come he couldn't say it now then, when she was waiting for it to come? The first time they had met in person for much longer than it should have been?

It must have been easier to talk on the phone, knowing you couldn't get punched if you made a comment in poor taste. Or, in Ran's case, get your skull cleaved in two by a heel kick.

The poor teenager's situation-triggered speech impediment came to a head and, flustered, he bowed over the table, hand stuck in his right jacket pocket. She reached over to him, and he looked back up at her.

She whispered words of encouragement to him. Her soft hand rested on his face. Under the restaurant table, their feet were slowly becoming entangled with neither of them noticing.

Filled with new conviction, he stood up from his chair, walked next to her, and got down on one knee.

The night would have been perfect if he hadn't later had to run out on the congratulatory free meal due to some important update in the case, but she didn't care. Because Shin'ichi had taken the time to come to her in person and to say the words that any girl wanted to hear.

_Mouri Ran, I love you. Will you marry me?_

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Top Hat.


	14. The Gun Was Real?

**...THE GUN WAS REAL?  
****(Based on Files 49-51, 'Edogawa Conan Kidnapping Case')**

Conan had quite honestly thought he'd hidden himself away quite well inside the closet. And really, it was a pretty comfortable place to hide. Besides, if clothing fell on top of you, just huddle underneath it and stop breathing so hard, and you might get mistaken for a bundle of messy clothes. And when people saw bundles of messy clothes, more often than not they left them bundles of messy clothes. This was even more assured in a hotel because of the presence of maids.

It had been a pity that he hadn't disturbed any of the clothes deliberately while in his hiding place. The people who had currently shooed him out of the closet looked like they might have looked it over. In some other universe somewhere.

Where he really was a space detective from the planet Ranpo.

Oh, dear God...

In hindsight, he should have shuffled himself underneath the bed into some dark corner and hyperventilated himself to sleep. It was possible that they would have overlooked him in the pitch black underneath the furniture and left quietly. Then he could have woken up later and gone back home and told Ran about these horrible kidnappers. After all, Ran trusted him and she would believe him when it came to "How come I just came back all alone and covered in sweat and dust five hours after somebody who called themselves my mother collected me?"

And now the dark, crazy man dressed as somebody he vaguely recognised (in his top hat and Inverness cape, he resembled both Kaitou KID and that half-English detective that followed him around like a lost puppy with a pocket-watch) had opened the door and was promptly holding a gun to his head. How pleasant.

Although he was sweating as if he was in Ibiza and his eyes were large like dinner-plates, internally he was a lot calmer.

If that was what you could call screaming in his head. Sure, he'd faced down a gun before at this size before; that was back when the mobsters from Italy had caught him and his friends solving their map for them. However, Conan had been a lot more worried for Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta on that case than he had been for himself. The rest of the gang were valuable to him. They were necessary if he were to pass himself off as a child to the rest of the world, including the Black Organisation.

Not like the act mattered any more. Right now, he had nobody to worry about but himself. So he did that, and prayed for his own life.

He scrambled for his stun dart watch, but looked down and realised with a screech of horror that it had been swapped for a plastic toy. Apparently the man in the Inverness had made the switcheroo while he had been unconscious in the abandoned house. Another parallel to draw with Kaitou KID, this trickster streak of his kidnapper's friend. Conan secretly wondered whether the KID's true identity was actually the same person behind this joyful-eyed white drama mask.

"You're going to regret underestimating us in the afterlife... isn't that right?" The man's evil blue eyes glared out at him, striking Conan as familiar. "High school detective – _Kudou Shin'ichi_?" He cocked the gun.

A hurried word escaped the small boy's lips.

"Tou-san?"

The woman, 'Fumiyo', held up a black-gloved hand in protest. "Wait, Yuusaku! _That's the wrong gun_!" she yelled.

The man, Kudou Yuusaku, dropped the gun in horror almost as soon as his finger pulled the trigger. Conan stumbled back, a bullet in his side and his eyes wide in realisation.

"T-Tou-san..." he muttered, dropping onto his knees. Yuusaku immediately fell down with him, cradling his tiny son as Kudou Yukiko and Agasa-hakase called up the bellboy who was retreating downstairs after hearing the gunshot.

The man threw off the mask to reveal his expression. "Son! Son! Are you okay? Shin'ichi!"

Conan looked up at him, ill-humoured. "What the _fuck_ was that for!?" he screamed back. "I was scared shitless! I honestly thought I was gonna die! And then my dad shoots me in the side!? _What the fuck was that for_!?!?"

"I didn't even know the gun was real!" Yuusaku replied. "I must have grabbed the real one instead of the dart gun by accident when we got home!"

"_HOW THE HELL COULD YOU MIX THEM UP_!?!?" Conan retorted. "_THE DART GUN'S BRIGHT GOLD_!!!"

"_GIVE ME A BREAK! I'M LONG-SIGHTED AND IT WAS DARK IN THERE_!!!"

"_HOW DID YOU MIX IT UP HERE, THEN_!?!?"

"_YOU TRY WEARING GLASSES BEHIND A MASK_!!! _IT'S VERY UNCOMFORTABLE_!!!"

The little boy frowned, and then burst into bitter, hysterical laughter. "_MY TOU-SAN JUST SHOT ME IN THE SIDE_!!! _I'VE GOT A BULLET IN ME_!!! _I'M GONNA DIE_!!!" he spat out in a feverish singsong. "_MY TOU-SAN JUST SHOT ME IN THE SIDE_!!!"

"_I DIDN'T MEAN IT_!!!" Yuusaku cried.

"_SHUT UP AND LET US CALL THE HOSPITAL_!!!" Yukiko and Agasa-hakase bellowed in chorus, nearly blowing the two Kudou men away, before turning back to the confused and panicked employee and, more importantly, his telephone.

Conan crossed his arms. The effects of the wound were finally appearing; his breath was laboured and the blood was vanishing from his round face. "What was the meaning of this whole damn show, anyway?" he asked.

"We wanted to test your detective abilities."

"Did I pass?"

"Yep."

"Good. One good thing to come out of my _BULLET WOUND IN THE SIDE, YOU BLIND ASSHOLE_!!"

"_HEY, WHO WAS THE ONE THAT TOOK MY GLASSES FROM HOME AND BROKE THEM_!?!?"

"_AT LEAST I'M NOT THE ONE WHO LEFT HIS SON ALL ALONE FOR THREE YEARS_!!!"

"SHUT UP!"

DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC

It was in the hospital, several hours and an emergency operation to pull the bullet out later, that at last Conan got most of his explanation. Apparently his parents and Agasa had formulated a plan to see if he could still detect his way out of a trap. The overall idea of it, past it being the regular mental ability exam, was for his parents to instil in him a fear of the people who had shrunk him so that they could take him with them to America where he'd be safe from their reach.

As if that really was going to happen now. The boy stubbornly rejected the offer, and with good reason. After all, if his father was blind enough to mix up a toy dart gun with a real one, how much safer could he really be in their hands?

That was until Yuusaku calmly reminded his son (while biting his lip; it must have really taken him a while to be able to face his son again after nearly killing him) that Ran could be told about Shin'ichi's big shrink with one phone call, and she'd be a lot less forgiving and understanding than his parents were. And certainly after Yuusaku and Yukiko told her that the runaway had actually been living with her and making her worried sick every day.

And that he'd bad-mouthed her cooking on a few occasions.

It wasn't often that Yuusaku threatened his son with Ran's wrath, but after seeing the priceless look on the boy's face, he doubted that he wouldn't do it again.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Sofa.


	15. They Talked To Each Other?

A/N: Kogorou isn't a dumbarse. Everybody knows that, and especially Conan. So, after reading some Kogorou-centric fanfiction in a similar vein, this was my idea of a proper confrontation between the two. I feel my ending's a bit of a cop-out, but I see Kogorou as somebody who'd try to empathise rather than somebody who would automatically take to violence when faced with such a problem.

Somehow, in my imagination, they have to talk to each other whenever a problem arises... it probably helps Conan with his stress more than anything. Kogorou, once settled and sober, is probably a very good vent. He'll take Conan seriously when the boy shows that they're in a serious environment.

* * *

**...THEY TALKED TO EACH OTHER?**

It surprised him when Conan first spoke. "We need to talk," he enunciated perfectly, in a calm, adult manner.

Mouri Kogorou, while easy to consider incompetent, was an intelligent man. As a student he had gained much trivial social knowledge. As a detective he had unravelled the twisted and complicated lies of many criminals and murderers. As a family man, as well, he had learned to tell emotions and to pick out the ones hidden inside.

But when he looked at Conan, it made him realise that he hadn't learned anything at all. Conan was a fantastic enigma for his height. You never knew whether he was laughing or crying; that big smile whenever he looked up at Ran hid everything inside. His acting had been incredible. So incredible, Kogorou would only begin referring to it as 'acting' when he found it that it was.

Ran was out at school that morning and Conan had been left under Kogorou's care, it being a Saturday. It had taken ten minutes for the boy to draw the courage to speak up. If he hadn't done so at such a time, the detective would not have listened to him; the races were on the television and Kogorou had a large amount of money running on those horses.

Kogorou, after Conan's opening line, found himself sobered up and tense on one sofa, while the small boy took his seat precariously on the edge of the other. The child straightened his bow-tie, and then swiftly snapped it off his neck to reveal the plainly-tied ribbon behind it. He adjusted something at the back, before holding it up to his mouth, all the while glancing up at the man across from him. In most normal circumstances, Conan would have found himself with a large lump on his head.

Whatever had been normal circumstances before, though, would certainly change afterwards.

Conan looked down at the bow-tie with fervency (or was it fear?) before speaking into it. And either by magic or by clever technology there emitted from those lips a voice that Kogorou had not heard in a while.

"It's me." The boy closed his eyes. "I'm the one who's been solving all your murders and crimes for you."

Kogorou leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples. "You're telling me that I haven't actually solved any cases since you came here."

He looked down at the floor. "You have, just... when I thought that you needed to do it yourself. When it was personal. When it made you so determined. I wasn't going to take the truth away when you had convinced yourself that you were going to find it."

The older man crossed his arms, staring down at the child who now shook under his gaze. "You've been using me as a puppet," he began. "For the last year, I've been the Sleeping Kogorou. And that's all been you."

A guilty nod.

"I bet you've been imitating my voice with that magic little bow-tie as well, haven't you? Knocking me out with some other toy. Possibly that watch you're wearing right now?" The boy looked up at him, eyes wide. "Do you think I'm stupid, kid?"

"No, you're not," he replied, still in that familiar voice. That familiar voice in annoyed crescendo. "It's just... that first night, that little girl's life was in danger, and you were acting so damn stupid, not asking the right questions and taking everything that guy said at face value and I was screaming in my head, _you stupid moron, think it through_-!!!" Conan bit his tongue. "After that night I realised that you weren't as finicky or as observant as I was, and that meant that you weren't going to get bigger cases if you didn't pick up your game. And then I... would never meet Ran's eyes again."

That was when the voice became so familiar it literally and figuratively knocked Kogorou to the floor. The times he had seen Conan's serious face flashed into his mind. The days that a tall, blue-eyed teenager named Shin'ichi had appeared mixed in. Conan's smart remarks. The teenager's deductive reasoning. Conan watching Ran. Shin'ichi changing the subject repeatedly. Conan's severe colds and brief vanishings. Shin'ichi collapsing onto the ground, covered in sweat and pale as ice, picking himself back up and running. Conan's boarding becoming permanent. Shin'ichi's prolonged absence from school. Conan leaving the agency every now and then for a skate. Shin'ichi's phone calls that made Ran cry.

Conan never being in the same place as Shin'ichi.

The two faces meshed together.

That was when Kogorou looked up at Edogawa Conan's round face... and saw Kudou Shin'ichi's sharp countenance staring back.

"Kudou-kun."

The little boy had never so looked so helpless in his life, eyes round and apprehensive behind the large glasses that Kogorou had now learned to be nothing more than toys. He had been kicking the table softly before; now it had changed to breaking it with a touch.

The man hesitated, choosing his next question carefully.

"Whenever did Ran blame you?"

"She doesn't now, but I remember... Ran shouting at me. She said to me that I was the reason you weren't getting cases. So I had the idea when this happened to me, that I could be the reason you _did_ get cases. I could solve them with your face, Ran would be happy, and I could be one step closer to finding out who did this to me."

"Did this to you?" Kogorou's brow furrowed as he leaned forward across the coffee table. "So high-school detectives don't just decide that they're going to shrink down to the size of a mouse?"

Conan fiddled with the edge of the sofa cushion with one hand, clutching the stiff red bow-tie in the other. "Two guys in black. They cornered me at Tropical Land when I saw them blackmailing a gun smuggler. They fed some weird poison and left me for dead. When I woke up the police had found me. Nobody believed me at the station - and no way in _hell_ was I going to stay in the police day-care," he grumbled under his breath, "so I ran to my house where Agasa-hakase found me. Then Ran came over, and hakase gave me the idea of staying with you, because as a detective you'd be getting cases. Hopefully, one of them would be to do with the guys that shrunk me."

Kogorou was quiet for a while. Conan sat there, huddled over in a pathetic heap. The clock ticked on, the only sound in the room.

All this time, Ran had been worried sick. Since her childhood, Shin'ichi had been her most constant friend, and during her teenage years Kogorou had watched her affection for him grow. When Shin'ichi had gone missing a year ago, Ran's feelings had been able to manifest themselves. And when Shin'ichi's excuse about his 'big case' began to get old Ran had just become the teensiest bit more concerned.

And all this time, Shin'ichi had been right next to her. The madman had been with her secretly this whole time, disguised as an innocent young boy. Not on purpose, of course, and he could understand why Shin'ichi had needed to disappear. If those men who had poisoned him had discovered that he was alive, then it was expected that they would look for him. And when they found him, the rest of them would suffer.

But there was something he just couldn't understand.

"Why didn't you tell Ran any of this?" Kogorou then asked.

The boy jumped at the question. "Well... if I did, she'd get worried," he stuttered awkwardly.

"She's worried _now_," Kogorou retorted.

"But she's not _dead_," Conan stressed, silencing him. "I know it sounds like I don't trust her, but it seemed the best idea. I mean... Sherlock Holmes hid from his best friend Watson for three years after faking his own death at the Reichenbach Falls. I reckoned that if he could do it, I could do the same."

"And can you?"

"No. I forgot that Watson wasn't... well, in love with Holmes and Holmes wasn't in love with Watson. I forgot that I was lying to the girl I grew up with. The one I grew to love. I guess I forgot why Holmes did it at all. I still can't really remember; I haven't read _The Empty House_ for so long. I just needed Ran to be safe."

Kogorou sighed. "Kudou-kun." The boy peeked up at him, his face so childlike it was hard to remember that he was presenting himself as an adult. "You're right. You couldn't trust Ran, especially now. She's become so worried for you that if you told her the whole story and she went out of the agency afterwards, people would notice. And if the people you're talking about were out there, watching her, they would come after her in an instant.

"But you've gradually crushed her like a twig. If you were really so observant you would have been able to see just how broken she's become," the man lectured. Although Conan looked at him forlornly, it was obvious that he had already realised this much. Shin'ichi had been an intelligent boy, if a little obnoxious about his own actions. But he was stupid. He didn't think much for the feelings of others. And now, talking to him now, as Conan, he seemed a lot more humble and withdrawn, and scared of making others feel bad. It was a complete overhaul of his personality.

"Besides," Kogorou continued, "you've given her time to stew. If you had told her straight away, I bet she would have been a lot more forgiving."

Conan nodded. "I know. She'll kill me now." He laughed bitterly. "I thought you would've done that by now. If you remember back to the re-union of your school judo club... yeah." The small boy turned bright red at this statement.

For the first time in the conversation, Kogorou's gaze lightened. "It's good to see you can make a joke out of the situation, all things considering," he said. Then he stood up, and opened the door to the agency. Conan visibly recoiled at the motion, the bow-tie finally dropping from his mouth into his chest. He was obviously scared of leaving, or whatever Kogorou would do to him.

But the detective picked the boy up from the chair and walked him through the door. He led him down the stairs and across the road to the public phone box. Placing him on the ground again he opened the door of the glass cubicle.

"Go ahead," he said. "Cheer Ran up for another day."

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Festival Street.


	16. The Talent Was Reversed?

A/N: It seems I have a talent for writing depressing things, don't I? Well, Heiji's dream in File One-Eighty-Five has always had me wondering ever since I first read that text. (Goddamn sub-text.) If I have a talent for writing depressing things then Heiji has a talent for dreaming depressing things, ne?

In the English manga, for some reason they emit the fact that Heiji also 'bit it'. I don't know why, as he directly foreshadows the attack on his own life in doing so. Maybe it's to make him look like a detective rather than somebody who depends on dreams and impulse. The problem is that Shin'ichi and Conan also work on impulse at times, most notably in the third film and also in the 'Memories of Matsuda' bombing case, where his love for Ran stops him from getting the entire clue. He still works it out, but if it hadn't been Teitan High that was bombed, he would have been the (indirect) cause of death for many people. In fact, the important feature of Hakuba is that he doesn't rush headfirst into things, and that's why he only works on KID cases: because KID slows down to allow him to work.

* * *

**...THE TALENT WAS REVERSED?  
****(Based on Files 185-188, 'Stabbed in the Wallet')**

Shin'ichi kept running.

He should have been savouring the short time he had. It was only in his dreamscape that he became himself again. It was only there that he could tell Ran how he felt...

But he was just running. You couldn't let murderers go. They didn't stop themselves.

He didn't know where the murderer was, but he could sense them. They were somewhere out here in the sprawling city he didn't recognise, this city full of tall buildings and bright lights. Almost like Tokyo, but there was some kind of other element at work.

The invisible chase took a turn through a bright, vibrant street filled with festival banners and lanterns. The people around him talked with exaggerated motions.

He passed right through them, their bodies little but figments of his imagination. No time to talk, to take in the sights, this man was getting away!

They passed by a building on fire. Shin'ichi didn't know what it had been used for before, but he noticed the shining window that had been left alone. Slowing, he looked into it.

And Hattori looked back at him. "Ku-Kudou-kun," he gasped, right as the black shadow behind him raised a gun.

Shin'ichi ignored everything that called for him to get the other criminal and burst straight through the glass, ignoring the cuts on his side and screaming the other's name as loud as he could. The flame licked his ankles, his trousers starting to smoulder. The heat was close to unbearable. But he kept on going to the other side of the room, where Hattori turned around to stare with the most horrible, terrified expression on his face at the black barrel.

The gun was aimed at Shin'ichi. It fired.

"Kudou-kun!"

Red blossomed through his shirt as he collapsed, the wordless Hattori staring down at him. Vision turned blurry... pain gripped him tightly in his last moments, refusing to let him go as he attempted to reach out to the other.

Right when his hand reached him, a grunt took his attention... he tried looking up, although he was so sleepy...

A large dark mass fell next to him, into his barely outstretched arm... green met blue as blood spilled out onto the floor. He tried yelling, talking, something to calm that green storm looking back at him.

All that came out was a whisper. "Hat... tori... -kun..."

His sight dimmed and his skull felt heavy. Tired, he rested it on the floor, watching with a lack of feeling as the one lying with him did the same.

He didn't make it...

He blacked out.

* * *

A/N: If one wonders how somebody can say 'Hattori-kun' like Shin'ichi does, he says 'ha', holds the second part (the stop) for a long time, then says 'tori'... That sentence just made sense when I ran it through my head...

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Petrol Station.


	17. There Was A Spell?

A/N: When I reread this case a while ago, I got the immediate creep-out at the line, "you cannot just drop out of the game because you are all under the spell I've cast upon you". Why? It's not because of the _Matrix_ parallels in that line. It's because straight afterwards in my head, Conan stood up, argued with the tape (which talked back) in a way that would reveal his identity were Ran listening properly, and then suddenly zoned out and shot everybody with a gun he'd always had in his pocket. Yes, the image of Conan handling a gun to kill is a bit prolific in my mind.

So I cleaned up that idea, took his gun, and then remembered that something else entertaining happened during this case. Ideas ran wild. I scooped up one, examined it, wrote down my notes and let it free into the wild where I'm certain somebody else picked it up. I think it was GMGirl.

* * *

**...THERE **_**WAS**_** A SPELL?  
****(Based on Files 299-302, 'Re-enacting the Sunset Massacre')**

"_You cannot just drop out of the game, because... you all are under the spell I've cast upon you,"_ said the speaker in the mannequin.

The detectives said nothing, all seated around the dinner table. Among them, a seventeen-year-old boy, in a seven-year-old body that looked younger than that, gripped the edges of his chair. Edogawa Conan was oddly cold this night.

The spell wasn't real. He kept telling himself that, over and over again. The 'spell' wasn't real. Nobody was under a spell. There were no such things. Nada. Nope.

Why did he have to say it?

Starting a little while ago, Conan had been followed from school. It wasn't an Organisation member, as far as he could tell – they weren't wearing the conspicuous black uniform and they had been following him in the plainest of sight. Not only that, but they hadn't picked the best disguise, if they were a crow. His tail was a young girl, most likely of high school age, wearing a blue and white fuku. She had been tall and pretty, with a distinct red gleam to her long black hair, and several men in the crowded streets around her had been ogling her very obviously.

Yeah. It just didn't seem like an Organisation member.

Conan had managed to confront her one night last week, after the rest of the Shounen Tantei had cleared off. He had cornered her in an alleyway. All had been going well...

...until she called him by name. "Kudou Shin'ichi-kun."

"Eh... what are you saying?" he'd stuttered. "My name's Conan. Edogawa _Conan_."

"I've been following you, I admit, but only to warn you," she'd replied. "Don't go to the Sunset Mansion. There has been a curse laid thick upon that place for forty years..." And she had vanished.

The only way she could have known that Mouri would receive his invitation the next morning was, your basic bystander could guess, by magic.

Conan didn't believe in magic. He hadn't before, at least. It was illogical. It was impersonal. It was too clean. If magic existed then there was a chance that the greatest murder cases in the history of civilisation (or lack thereof) might have been perpetrated using magic. And that meant that the killer would never be discovered. And a detective who thought that was certainly a broken one. So Conan had always eliminated magic from the list of possibilities.

However, when eliminating magic, it became hard for him to explain how she could have known. She was only a high school student; she didn't hold a job at a post office; and if she was really sending him the invitation herself then why would she show up before the letter arrived and ask him not to go? Even worse, how on earth did she know his name? It didn't make sense – and Conan had definitely showed this when he had woken up in the morning with huge bags under his eyes. Ran had been very worried for him.

So that afternoon, he had found the school the girl's uniform belonged to, which was a large establishment in Ekoda, and asked for somebody matching her description at the reception. She had been called out of class.

They'd talked. And then he'd said something wrong, he must have done, and she'd then done... something to him.

It had to have been some cruel, sick mind trick. She couldn't really have _cursed_ him like she said. Curses weren't real, after all. This girl just wanted to creep him out or something. Yeah, that had to be it.

There had been no further incidents until they went to the petrol station earlier tonight. When Mouri came out of the store, Conan didn't see him coming. All he'd seen was that familiar white shadow.

And ever since that, his mind had been screaming at him. No, it couldn't be, it was ridiculous! Mouri couldn't be that guy! And curses weren't real, either!

He stole another glance over at Mouri, once again failing to see him. If it had been any other day and any other circumstance he would have thought he needed more sleep, but right now he was too scared to think anything. He just wondered. He wondered if this were really a curse (and if it were real, if it wasn't actually a blessing). He wondered if he was just going insane and what action to take. He wondered if Hakuba Saguru, the smart-looking half-British sitting across the table, had ever felt like this in his career.

All he saw in Mouri's seat was Kaitou KID.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Neighbour.


	18. The Fate Was Shared?

A/N: Lots of people like to do fanfiction where another character shrinks. (Hey, I know. Remember Chapter 10?) But have you noticed how many people shrink Ran, Heiji and Kaito? In fact, the sheer numbers of people that shrink Kaito just because of the effects it would have on the series' entire plotline if Kaitou KID were knocked down? So I picked on somebody else this time. I was going to do loads of these shrinkings once upon a time, but I set it aside after realising just how cliché that was. That is, until what reading _The Adventure of the Reigate Squire_, when it came back in full effect and I was like, ooh, shrinky peeps!

Peeps. Maybe we should grow Conan into Shin'ichi by putting him in the microwave, right?

* * *

**...THE FATE WAS SHARED?**

To Edogawa Conan, seven years old, this was surely one of the most ridiculous things he had ever encountered. It was a television stunt. Yes, that was it. It had to be. So something would have to happen about it. Surely somebody would step in at some point and declare him to be on a reality television show.

Strangely, nothing of that sort did happen. And so Conan was left sitting at his desk in elementary school, whacking his head on it several times over while many of his young colleagues and his teacher Kobayashi-sensei looked on in total loss at what to do.

"Conan-kun, are you alright?" said his _new_ classmate and next-door neighbour. That sentence, however, didn't carry the meaning many readers would be accustomed to see in its possession. Haibara had moved to sit with Mitsuhiko when a young girl named Maria had been taken to another school. And pretty soon after, another student had moved into class.

He slumped forward on his desk and did not come back up again. He simply lay there face-down like an old ragdoll, not sure whether it was due to exhaustion (banging your head against a table was hard work), concussion or just plain aggravation.

"I want to go home," he whimpered.

"Edogawa-kun? Do you want me to, maybe, call your onee-chan?" Ms Kobayashi said, not sure what to do. In her previous school, Conan's behaviour would normally precede a shouting match before the kid walked out the door. It was rather reassuring to know that Conan did not actually push himself out of the door. He needed prompting, though, because of that.

"No, I want to go to Shin'ichi-nii-chan's house," he grumbled.

"But there's no guardian there."

"Yeah, Ku- Shin'ichi-nii-san hasn't been around for over a year. You sure you want to go there?" said his classmate.

Conan groaned. "_Yes_."

Ms Kobayashi hesitated, and picked up her mobile phone. "This is the third time this week. Maybe we should talk outside?"

Conan stirred, then pushed himself up from his desk, glasses askew on his nose, and hobbled slowly out of the door. Ms Kobayashi joined him not a minute later.

"Edogawa-kun, are you having trouble with our new student?" she asked.

"It's not that," Conan replied. Indeed, he wasn't troubled by her; he was just wondering how Miyamoto Yumi of the traffic department had managed to get into this mess.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Courtroom.


	19. They'd Made It On Time?

A/N: Every now and then I keep asking myself what would happen if Akemi did make it after all. Usually, she's shrunk, but this time it was more entertaining to forego that and do what happened in the first anime version. And then something a little disturbing crept into it.

**

* * *

**

...THEY'D MADE IT ON TIME?

**(Based on Files 13-16, 'The One Billion Yen Robbery')**

Gin aimed the gun. He would have fired it, too, if it weren't for the intervention.

It started with a trainer knocking the weapon away. The silver-haired man gripped his hand, feeling the broken bones, as his pistol clattered away. Vodka made a run to grab it, but something embedded itself in his neck and he collapsed in a large black heap. He was not dead, merely tranquilised.

Miyano dropped to the floor, alarmed as a teenage girl and a small boy launched the most terrifying of punches, kicks and shoves upon the remaining man. The girl was utilising karate, while the boy's feet appeared to be glowing.

The police soon came after the strong girl had knocked Gin out. She had run away from her father and the man had used the cops to look for her. Miyano, Gin and Vodka were cuffed.

DCDCDCDCDCDC

A few days later, the small boy visited the woman in prison.

"It's you," said Miyano. "What is it you want?"

"I wanna know some things." He put his hands in his pockets. "Like how you know those two guys."

"I'm afraid that if I told you, I might be killed," she replied.

He blinked. "Don't worry," he said. "I can keep you safe, right? I'll protect you, Masami-san."

She smiled. "My name is Akemi. But thanks."

"Conan-kun!"

The boy turned to the door. "I have to go now," he said, and walked away.

DCDCDCDCDCDC

Miyano was discharged from prison within a few months, having only been an accomplice. However, Gin and Vodka were kept in for a long time after the girl – Mouri Ran, her name was – and Inspector Megure linked them to suspicious behaviour the day that Kudou Shin'ichi had disappeared. Meanwhile, Miyano decided to rent an apartment somewhere in the city. She didn't hesitate with her phone call to her sister. She was happy to hear her voice.

However, some time later there was a telephone call. She was placed under arrest again. The two men in prison had been shot dead by an unknown person who stole a gun from a security guard and had run in and out without any witnesses. She was soon due in court.

DCDCDCDCDCDC

Conan stepped up to her in the defendant box before the trial. "Are you okay, Akemi-san?" he asked.

"I swear I didn't do this," she replied. "They're going to kill me, I swear it!" And she collapsed into tears, leaving the little boy there to watch.

"...Who's going to kill you?" he asked, eyes dark.

"I can't say," she said. "I'll really die."

Conan nodded. "Oh, and your lawyer's here," he said, gesturing to a tall, shapely brunette woman with her hair in a bun and a pair of thin glasses. The lawyer walked over to her, shaking her hand.

"My name's Kisaki Eri. I'll be your attorney."

DCDCDCDCDCDC

It was almost as amazing as when Gin and Vodka had been attacked. Kisaki painted pictures with her words. She had all the physical evidence. In the end, the jury conceded that Miyano was innocent and she was acquitted.

However, the deaths of the two men were not solved. There was little to no opening for any human to come in and kill them. The case would probably go cold after the fifteen-year time limit.

Conan, however, asked the Mouri family if he could live with Miyano. It was an odd decision, and the legal work was definitely laborious, but eventually Miyano did gain custody of the child. His parents were missing, the Mouri's didn't have any legal guardianship, and Eri was frightening enough.

As soon as they got to their new home, however, Conan turned on his guardian and bombarded her with questions. She could do very little to answer. He eventually settled, but still kept a critical eye on his new guardian.

DCDCDCDCDCDC

A few months later, a little girl appeared at their front door. Miyano immediately took her in.

"Is it – is it you, Shiho-imouto?" she asked.

The little girl looked up. "Akemi-nee-chan!" She dove on her. "I missed you so badly!"

Conan walked into the room at that moment, a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a VHS tape in the other, and spotted the little girl. "Oh? Who's this, Akemi-san?" he asked.

"This is my sister, Shiho," she said, letting the child in her arms sit down on their settee. "Shiho-imouto, are you alright? What on earth happened to you?"

The little girl looked at Conan. "The same thing that happened to him," she said. "I _shrank_."

Conan dropped his popcorn.

And so Shiho explained everything to Conan. How his body had been gradually killed by the poison designed to cause mass apoptosis. How she had developed the drug with her sister. How a large criminal organisation had requested this poison. How this organisation had turned on the younger Miyano when the elder Miyano had been arrested.

How they were now looking for both of them due to Shiho's big mistake of escaping alive.

Conan could only stand there, fingers twitching.

DCDCDCDCDCDC

The next morning, Edogawa Conan left to go to school. That afternoon, he came back. Within the same half-hour, the police entered the house in response to his distressed phone call.

Miyano and a little girl were lying dead on the floor.

Questioning of Conan did not return any information to the police, which was odd when you considered his long-standing reputation of a keen eye. However, they put it down to the murder of his guardian and houseguest, as well as the unusual position in which they had been found – in a bath-tub with the hot water left running for so long it had begun to flood the room without getting near the door. Also to blame for his unhelpfulness was how they had been killed: judging from the evidence, they had forced into a wall so hard their skulls had broken and rattled with machine-gun fire before dumped in the tub.

So, for some time, Conan was left in the hands of the police. The Mouri family regained guardianship of him after that.

DCDCDCDCDC

It was ten years later that Ran was getting married, and four hours later that the reception finally cleared, leaving two men behind. Conan was now identical to the lost Kudou Shin'ichi, minus the glasses and longer hair. Mouri's only change was that his hair had turned grey.

"We've been lucky, haven't we?" he said. Conan looked up.

"Really?"

"Well, the cops were thinking you would've been attacked these last ten years," Mouri explained. "After what happened to that lady Miyano-san and her little sister, it was reckoned that you were going to be killed next. Although..." The man stroked his chin. "...It _is_ interesting."

"Hmm?"

"When records were checked, it was found that Miyano-san only had one little sister. And she should be twenty-seven now. Which makes us wonder... who was the little girl with Miyano-san? And why did she claim to be her sister?"

No sooner did he say that then Conan took off his glasses. "Didn't you ever wonder why Edogawa Conan appeared just after Kudou Shin'ichi disappeared?"

Mouri blinked.

"That little girl was Akemi-san's sister. And..." He began to walk away from the older man. "Once upon a time, Edogawa Conan was Kudou Shin'ichi." He looked over his shoulder at the startled detective. "And it was _their_ fault that Kudou Shin'ichi became Edogawa Conan."

DCDCDCDCDC

The next day, the police reopened the case. Edogawa Conan confessed to the murders of Gin, Vodka, Miyano and Shiho. He was charged with four counts of homicide. Perhaps it wasn't too unexpected, then, that after that day nobody ever saw Edogawa Conan again.

* * *

A/N: See what I mean? *shudders*

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Unscientific Disguise


	20. He Was Psychic?

A/N: _Hi, I'm back! Did you miss me?_ That's what this collection would be saying if it could talk. So yeah, after so long I've decided I might as well update with this tiney little fic that doesn't even qualify as a drabble. Why? Because this actually is the next one after the Miyano Akemi story. If you take a look at the last 'Conan's Hint'... see? It's somewhat related.

So... I think I actually did base this one on _Maybe He's Not Just That Observant_ by GMGirl. I do indeed think I wrote this around the time that I put out Chapter 17 (that was the kind of schedule I was on at the time) when I saw it. Or maybe not. Anyway, although it's not actually based on a chapter, I was thinking through the case files where Ayumi gets kidnapped. Remember what he did?

* * *

**...HE WAS PSYCHIC?**

Conan thought he had the perfect place to hide. Nobody would be able to guess his greatest hiding spot yet-!

A tap on his shoulder.

"Found you!" Mitsuhiko cheered. "You think loud!"

Some days, Conan wished he was as smart as Mitsuhiko. Then maybe he would develop telepathy as well. It wouldn't half be useful in the field, after all.

* * *

A/N: Mitsuhiko _sticks branches in his shirt_ and hides in a bush the first time around. Now it's a little different, ne?

This is one of those stories where you have to relax when you read it and not point out the fact that technically Conan is much smarter than Mitsuhiko in all circumstances. The plot-bunny came along, bit me and I ran with it.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Pipes


	21. His Ear Wasn't So Tin?

A/N: As you all would probably know, I'm a huge fan of J-Pop, and I really like MIX_DELTA's stuff. And also, Shin'ichi is basically a God Mode Sue. You guys know it as well as I do that Shin'ichi can do everything. Except one thing.

Tada~

* * *

**...HIS EAR WASN'T SO TIN?  
(Based on Files 144-146, 'The Voices Match! Conan Meets TWO-MIX')**

While the others panicked, Conan picked up the microphone. He picked up the CD case, and flicked through the booklet. Genta really shouldn't have put on the song.

Blinking, he waited for his queue.

Then he opened his mouth.

"_Break my lies – 'kakedasu senaka wo oikakete mou ichido'_," he began chanting.

Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta wheeled around in total shock.

"_Save my heart – 'hontou wa matte 'ru... dakeshimete!' Ima return to love!_"

The men paused. Conan paid no notice to them, eyes drifting shut as he lost himself in the sheer sound of the music pumping from the speakers just outside the room. Minami and Shiina entered the room.

"What's going on?" Minami asked. One of the stagehands pointed at the small boy clutching the microphone and nodding his head softly to the beat. She blinked.

There approached a verse; Conan sighed, opening his eyes quickly to glance over the lyrics before closing them again.

"'_Tatta hito-koto' ga sunao ni iezu ni kizutsuketa yo_," he sang. Both Minami and Shiina stared at him (although Minami did send Mitsuhiko a look of understanding). "_Nakitai kurai ni nukumori kono te ni motome-nagara_."

DCDCDCDCDC

Outside in the crowd, Ran and Sonoko sang along.

"Hey, why aren't they on stage yet?" Sonoko asked.

"I don't know," Ran replied. "Maybe they do it this way often?"

DCDCDCDCDC

"_Keiken fuereba yume mo, mujaki ni mirenaku - naru kara_," Conan continued, completely blind to how he was being led towards the door. "_Sore demo doko ka de kitto shinjitakute mitsumeteta!_"

The door opened, and Minami and Conan walked out onto the stage.

Somewhere in the crowd, Mouri Ran's jaw dropped.

"_Break my lies – 'hitomi ni yurete 'ru shinjitsu ni kizuite'_," the two sang in duet, Conan never opening his eyes once. "_Save my heart – 'furueru kuchibiru kuchizukete!' Ima return to love!_"

DCDCDCDCDC

"Conan-kun! Ayumi cried. Conan turned around, just in time to be enveloped by a big hug. "You never told me you could sing so well!"

"I..." was all the poor startled boy could stutter, before looking down at the microphone still lying in his hand. "...I can sing?"

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Sides.


	22. He Didn't Get It?

A/N: A real 'What If?' this time - only one thing changed in the entire universe!

* * *

**...HE DIDN'T GET IT?  
(Based on Files 441-444, 'Showdown! Heiji VS Kazuha!')**

"Hattori-kun?"

Hattori looked down at Conan. "Yeah?"

"Did you buy that book this morning?" Conan twisted his head to look up at him after a short silence. "You know, _The Will of the Devil_? The one you stopped me from reading by suggesting we all go out to dinner?"

Hattori blinked. "...oops."

The smaller boy blinked, and grimaced. "I'm sorry, what was that?" he growled.

The Ôsakan scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I forgot to tell my okan the book was even out," he managed to stutter under his breath.

Conan slapped himself in the face, accidentally driving the bridge of his glasses further into his nose. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm going on the girls' side."

Hattori's jaw dropped. "What!? You can't do that, Kudou-kun! You're just doin' that for nee-chan, you stupid little-!" He desperately grabbed at the little boy. But Conan, being small and fast, ran over to his nee-chan and tugged her sleeve. Hattori could only watch as he started to spill the answer to the puzzle.

He groaned, kicking the wall. "God-damnit, Kudou-kun, I just wanna go to that freakin' koshien..." He paused.

And smiled.

"Right, so that's what you're thinkin'... good job, Kudou-kun, good job..." he muttered. "After all, even if _I_ don't wanna go to that ol' playhouse, somebody does..."

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** CPU


	23. He Took Another First?

**...HE TOOK ANOTHER FIRST?  
****(Based on **_**Magic Kaito**_** Chapter 3, 'The Ticking Heart')**

The thick metal door opened and Kaito walked nervously into the laboratory. There was a teenage boy sitting inside, hooked up to a complicated machine with a helmet-like node strapped to his head, pins forced into his skull and his left ear canal and wires feeding into a larger, more traditional-looking terminal. He had his hands tied behind his back to a steel girder with thick rope, and he was dressed in a white shirt and blue trousers.

Kaito looked around at the room, before switching on the lights.

"I've been waiting, you fake," the boy announced. In his voice. Understandable; Kaito's vocal receptors were designed to imitate voices rather than make up their own. He had taken this boy's voice for convenience.

"_Please tell me_," Kaito said, bowing as low as he could. "_Please tell me why I have to be you? Who am I?_"

The boy growled. "You're a _robot_!"

Kaito didn't like being called a robot. He was perfectly functional in all aspects of human society. His mind generated the image of a simple-shaped, white individual with tracks for feet and black wires sticking everywhere. Kaito didn't match this image.

"_No. I'm human_," he replied politely.

"On the contrary," said another voice. Kaito looked up to see a white-clad man of similar height to him, wearing a long cape but with a set of wires streaming from the back of his neck attached to the second girder near the other boy's. "You're exactly the opposite of a human." He was talking with nearly the same voice.

"_Why is it that you don't call me human?_" Kaito asked, walking around to kneel in front of them both. "_I can talk. I can walk – I can run, and fall... I can get hurt, and angry, and upset. I can think. That's what humans do, isn't it?_"

"If that's what humans do, then tell me what happened to Ôgami-hakase," the boy said, causing the caped man to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "The man who walked all the way across Tokyo to Beika to kidnap me two days ago without realising who I was."

Kaito remembered earlier, in the dark room next door to the laboratory. Images in his head showed him oil spilling everywhere, wires severed, fibre optics torn into and everything reflecting bright red light back into his optical sensors. He liked to process images more than he did audio files; they often revealed more to him. That phrase embedded into his mind said as much. A picture paints a thousand words. And that picture certainly had painted a story.

"_He broke_," Kaito concluded.

The boy's eyes widened. "Humans don't break, robot... they die."

Die? Kaito didn't understand the word. "_Die. Verb describing the action of the phenomenon of death..._ _What is death?_" he asked, leaning forward. "_He broke. He just needs to be repaired._"

"Death is when all physical and mental processes contributing to life terminate," the man in the cape said. "When humans break, they are called 'injured'. Not all processes end when injured. None of them have to. A hospital can repair them because some, if not all, processes are still contributing. But when a human 'dies', all processes terminate and cannot be restarted."

Kaito stood up. "_Death is for all programs to terminate._" The two males looked at each other, and nodded for lack of a better analogy. "_That still doesn't explain something._"

"And that is?" the boy asked.

"_Why I have to be you_," Kaito said, looking at him. "_My designation is Kaito, I'm stationed in Ekoda and I fly across the sky at night. My female companion is called Aoko-san... why do I have to be you?_"

The boy shot a smirk over at the man in the cape. Kaito watched as it suddenly faded when the boy looked at him. "Maybe it was because Ogami-hakase realised who he had in his hands. Even though he designed you after me, he took Kaitou KID's specifications and designation when he realised Kaitou KID's ability to imitate a person flawlessly. Hopefully, with KID's talent in you, you could pull off a more convincing charade than just you programmed with information on my personality.

"It seems to have worked, too," he added, begrudgingly, "because news of my kidnapping wasn't in the newspaper that you gave us this morning."

"Neither was there any claptrap about KID's new phony on the front page," the man also said.

"_I was just acting according to his program, and his programs terminated_," Kaito said to himself, standing up. "_Was I just acting according to your personalities? Do you terminate programs often?_"

The man shook his head. "Never."

The boy followed suit. "I hate those who would."

"_I suppose you hate me, then_," Kaito said. "_I think I was the one who terminated him. And if I have to act like you, I must hate me too._"

It was a funny subject to talk about, Kaito thought. He had always thought that humans lost all functions when they broke. That was a good time for them to be fixed so that the repairer would not be harmed. But now they only became 'injured' when they broke, with functions remaining? Wouldn't that hurt the repairer? And when they lost all function, function couldn't be regained, either, so their programmes were terminated and they died...

If he applied his emotions to it, then the boy used anger as a response to termination of another human. Maybe he applied sadness as well? But, from what he knew about anger, it caused damage as well. He remembered getting angry last night, and he had 'broken' the professor – or maybe he had killed him? And he knew that he had only acted according to his program, and according to his program he also needed to be the boy...

Did the boy terminate programs? Maybe he should too...

"_Do you want to terminate programs?_" he asked quickly to the boy.

The teenage boy bit his lip, hesitating before his answer. "Yes," he said, his quiet voice and straight tone causing the man's head to snap up. "Some days I do."

"_Thank you._" And which that, Kaito forced open his chest, ripped out his core energy generator and central processing unit and shut down.

Kaitou KID looked over at Kudou Shin'ichi in astonishment. "Would you really kill yourself, tantei-kun?"

Shin'ichi sighed, leaning back onto the girder and closing his eyes. "I would, if it would bring about the end of my suffering. But I can't do that – I'd only make Ran suffer even more."

* * *

A/N: I am one emo kid.

I can't remember when I wrote this one at all. Chapter Three is my favourite chapter of _Magic Kaito_. You know _In the Wrong Hands_? The story's such a big part of that fanfiction! I must have been thinking about how damn lucky Ogami-hakase must have been to have grabbed KID in his schoolboy mode... Actually, I'm always thinking that. So I tried to think of something - anything - that would make sense. I think I failed.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Window.


	24. The Bird Didn't Fly?

A/N: Hey, this one's dated! It's- ...the second to the third of January. Wow.

You see, as much as I love my HeiShin, I also do enjoy a spot of the ConKai ship. (Silly contractions here in this fandom; at least Sonadow sounds a bit more like a word.) So, back at the New Year, I bet we were all watching this case's updates on . This was the first ever time I have identified Kaitou KID from one of his disguises just by looking at him. I was dreadfully amused that I was right, and that he was the maid.

Since this was written nearly eight months ago, I still do not remember exactly what was going through my head, just that this is some weird in-character narration that you'll enjoy anyway.

* * *

**...THE BIRD DIDN'T FLY?  
(Based on Files 674-676, 'Kaitou KID's Tanuki Task')**

He sheds his mask and costume within a flash and a bang (literally, the smoke's billowing off him), saying his name in such a pompous fashion. All that's returned, however, is a small smirk, muffled by the hot purple tongue of a neckerchief-wearing dog.

You know, I love dogs. Always have: ever since I walked past that gate to greet John, ever since I first read about Toby the mongrel, I have loved dogs. Big dogs and small dogs and woolly dogs and furry dogs and dogs that jump and skip about and dogs that yap until dinner time: they're all my favourite dogs.

I'm not gonna quit liking dogs, either. It's just that time hasn't been kind, and as I find myself small again, there's the inevitability of being treated like a puppy.

I don't mind though, so even though the dog is attacking me with its tongue, I smirk back at him.

There's a silly smile given back. Clearly he loves to see me being attacked by dogs with their tongues. I can't help it if I'm a target for this treatment, now, can I? And I'm too much of a softy to push away the dog. He's warm and soft and has shoulders I can actually wrap my arms around.

And then there's another flash and another bang and suddenly - that guy, he's not standing there anymore. He's been replaced by, well-

-the image of his younger conversational partner in ten years. Or was it two years ago? It's been killing me to think it through recently. I'm just trying to adapt to who I am at the moment; that's enough of a headache for me.

So he's virtually my twin. There are differences though. You can never ignore differences if you want to be a detective. He's got a wirier frame for his acrobatics, slightly paler skin from his night-work with a shiny pink area on his nose where the monocle pinches. He's a little taller and pointier-looking. His shoulders curve a little more. So does his nose. It helps to hold up the monocle better.

His hair's all over the place. That's the biggest difference. The colour is exactly the same. The fringe too, but... From there? I can't see where the parting is; maybe his hair's just thick enough to cover a double crown.

Still, I find myself looking at me. And it hurts, somehow.

This is what I should look like. Not what I do look like.

He kneels down, ruffles my hair and holds up a fan of playing cards, explaining to me. This isn't a trick; he lets me pick a card, pushes the hand into the deck while showing his short sleeves, lets me shuffle it while he has his eyes closed and hands behind his back, takes the deck back and then pulls my card out from behind my ear. That's a trick. This is him.

Why is he here like this? I don't know. Even when I ask he doesn't tell me.

He glances out over the windows. I catch myself looking at him as he does so. He moves as if he's doing cartwheels all the time, slinky and smooth like a cat but with a sense of misbalance. Judging from his steps, I doubt he has a centre of balance at all. It's like they chopped off his tail.

He seems a lot more delicate than one would expect. His pale skin and lithe frame make him appear as porcelain, although from experience I know that he'll never shatter. But his thin fingers, slightly sloping shoulders, odd stride... he just looks fragile. He won't shatter. But he will break.

What is this, some obscure form of narcissism that I find myself indulging in? He's not that different to me. When I was older, I saw the same faults in my own body. I was quite thin and feminine-looking. At times I swore I spotted my ribs poking through my skin.

But I was... am different, right? I didn't – won't – don't - point like he does. I'm rounded, and I'm yellowish and I can walk fine like everybody else. He's pokey, and he's white, and he walks like his mental state.

Unhinged.

I frown at him. What is it that makes him like this? He was built for his job. He's my age and definitely not from a family of my wealth; there's no way he could develop that much of a vocal range on his own, or perform like he does, or fly a hang-glider that way, or disguise himself so effectively. Somebody taught him all of that.

Why on earth would they teach him to be a thief? Because they were a thief. They were the original. And they had to be somebody quite close, and a child would grow attached to a teacher that looked after them. Maybe that was why he took up the mantle... literally.

There are red lights outside. The police are coming back, correct? Right; it's time for him to leave, then.

I grab his wrist. I don't know why, but I want to keep him here. Maybe because he looks like me. Maybe not. I don't know. I just need him to stay here.

He shakes his head. Understandable; some strange guy can't be standing in the room when they're looking for that particular thief, can they? It just screams suspicious. But against my better judgement I keep my fingers wrapped around his arm, his tiny, thin arm (I thought I was meant to be the tiny one here) and shift all of my weight into my feet. I'm not letting go.

I ask why he even came if he could be caught. He laughs and explains, trying to pry off my fingers at the same time. He says he did it because he's a fan of the gentleman thief Lupin, and he had to help. The thought of Lupin imprisoned in a cage breaks his heart.

Lupin is a euphemism for himself, I notice, after a second.

I ask him if there's anything else he would want to stay for. So he smirks, flops over backwards and winks to me as Occhan enters the room, followed by Ran.

He wants to stick around to see the aftermath. It's too late for him to fly without being noticed.

Occhan notices him straight away and runs over to him as he – a very talented actor – pushes his head up, groaning. He groans that the last thing he remembers, he was eating okonomiyaki back home. I stand by him, hand still on his wrist.

I tell Occhan that I thought he looked like my cousin. It's almost true as well...

No, it is true. When he appeared, I thought it was me.

Nakamori enters the room and scoops him up, asking what happened. I quickly make up a story about how the thief deposited him unconscious on the floor, saying that he wanted him to see Lupin free at last.

But there are differences!

Nakamori knows the boy, so he decides to take him to the police car. However, he wants to stick around; he doesn't understand what the thief meant.

But do they matter!?

It's giving me a headache!

Eh?

He places his hand on my back. "This little kid was so kind as to rush to me straight away," he says. "I want to find a way as to repay his kindness. Could we have a moment alone, please?"

Everybody complies, although Ran sticks around for a few seconds. He reassures her that nothing bad will happen. After some time she budges, and leaves the room.

"Why did you do that for us?" I ask.

"Why did you do that for me?" he asks back, referring to my quick save a few moments ago.

"Why are you staying?"

He stops, looks down and picks me up. "Why, tantei-kun, I think it's obvious that I know who you are, right?"

The idea has passed through my head many times, but never has it been confirmed.

"I have the right to find out about who you are if you have the right to find out about who I am," he continues. "And when I found out who you are, I couldn't resist another audience with you. Unfortunately, that was all in public. We needed some alone time together before it was too late, so I decided to finally call in this time."

I smile. So he remembers me.

"That I do. The clock tower. You managed to corner me."

He was the genius though. He put the code on the clock to make the police inspect it, and stop the owner from demolishing it. They also discovered how the diamond in the clock's hand had already been sold away due to this turn of events.

It was because he had a special moment there, right?

"That's right. _I will not give this clock to anyone_." He winks. "Think of yourself as a clock, me as Lupin and the night as still young. Okay?"

* * *

A/N: You spoony barsteward.

* * *

**Next Conan's Hint!:** Play Cute.


	25. Certain Weaknesses Were Exposed?

A/N: Fanfiction based on fanfiction! I've _never_ done this before! [/sarcasm mode] If I ever do another based on a fanfiction, it'll probably be the Heiji costume meme. Heck, you can consider this either part of that or separate.

**

* * *

**

**...CERTAIN WEAKNESSES WERE EXPOSED?  
(Based on _Unexpected_ by minuu-chan)**

"I'm not doing it."

"Aww... Why not?"

"It's stupid."

"It ain't stupid."

Conan glared. "What the hell do you mean?" he said. "Of course, it's stupid."

Hattori Heiji frowned. "Why is it?" he asked. "Come on, ever since I found this out I've been dyin' to try it."

"Exactly," Conan replied dryly. "And anything you'd die for has to be stupid."

Hattori feigned a deep depression. "Aww, Kudou-kun, I'm hurt," he groaned, adding in a few puppy dog-like whimpers for good measure. He knelt down and fell onto his side, looking up at the boy (for one of the few times of his life) with big eyes while he scratched at the carpet.

Conan sighed. He could never come up with a good-enough argument when he saw Hattori at his feet. "Alright, then…" He sat down cross-legged next to the elder's head. "I'll do it if you stop looking pathetic."

Hattori blinked. "I was goin' for endearin', but okay!"

DCDCDCDCDC

Kaitou KID flourished tonight's heist in front of the gob-smacked crowd. "Thank you very much, Nakamori-keibu!" he shouted back as he jumped from the roof. He dived for a while, savouring the feel of the wind rushing past his face, before opening his glider and swooping down low.

He flew for a while, until suddenly he turned around and…

"ACK!"

A large fish-shaped kite flew behind him. And below it, holding the string was Conan, also dressed as a cute little tuna with large shiny gold eyes.

Cute for Conan maybe, but not for KID. The thief careened into a tree and crashed somewhere near the docks.

DCDCDCDCDC

Hattori burst out laughing. "I told him Kaitou KID was fish-o-phobic!"

"Heiji-kun, your dinner's gettin' cold," said Shizuka.

Yes, okan." And he dutifully returned to his takoyaki.


End file.
